“If I didn’t practice well my dad made me run home behind the car,” says Krajicek. “Once, he was upset with me and he spanked me pretty good. I’d just come back from the States and he didn’t know about jetlag, he thought I tanked the match, that I didn’t try.
“A few days later he said to me, ‘I’ve heard about this jetlag, I shouldn’t have done it – but all the other times you deserved it.’
“I understand what Tomic is saying about his father – he’s still your dad and you love him. And maybe if you want to be a good player it is the way to be, the way my dad did it.
“Maybe the way I approach it now, my son is going to have a good relationship with me but he’s going to be a terrible tennis player.”
Pushy parents are more usually associated with the women’s side of the game. The father of Suzanne Lenglen, who won eight Grand Slam singles titles between 1919 and 1926, provided the template, forcing her to repeatedly hit a handkerchief pinned to a court from the age of 10.
Mary Pierce’s father, Jim,, external once shouted “Mary, kill the bitch!” while watching his daughter playing in a junior match. “Maybe I’m trying to live my youth now,” he said later, at least admitting what many wouldn’t, namely that he was living out his dreams vicariously through his talented daughter.
The promising career of Jelena Dokic was hindered by her father, Damir, whom she claims mentally and physically abused her.
In 2009, Damir was imprisoned for threatening the Australian ambassador to Serbia with a rocket launcher., external John Tomic seems like a soft touch in comparison.
“This stuff rarely reaches the ATP Tour,” says Cash, “because usually the guys get to an age where they can say, ‘back off’. But Tomic is a rare case of a guy whose dad is still coaching him .
“The ATP has no option other than to say that this type of behaviour is not going to go on. They have a duty to protect Bernard.”